
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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mm College Series 


Forty-Seven , 


Number 




BY MISS CARRIE R. DENNEN 


NEW YORK: 

PHILLIPS & HUNT 

CINCINNATI: 
WALDEN & STOWE 
































The “ Home College Series ” will eontain one hundred short papers on 
a wide range of subjects—biographical, historical, scientific, literary, domes¬ 
tic, political, and religious. Indeed, the religious tone will characterize all 
of them. They are written for every body—for all whose leisure is limited, 
but who desire to use the minutes for the enrichment of life. 

These papers contain seeds from the best gardens in all the world of 
human knowledge, and if dropped wisely into good soil, will bring forth 
harvests of beauty and value. 

They are for the young—especially for young people (and older people, 
too) who are out of the schools, who are full of “business” and “cares,’’ 
who are in danger of reading nothing, or of reading a sensational literature 
that is worse than nothing. 

One of these papers a week read .over and over, thought and talked about 
at “odd times,” will give in one year a vast fund of information, an intel¬ 
lectual quickening, worth even more than the mere knowledge acquired, a 
taste for solid read : ng, many hours of simple and wholesome pleasure, and 
ability to talk intelligently and helpfully to one’s friends. 

Pastors may organize “Home College” classes, or “Lyceum Reading 
Unions,” or “Chautauqua Literary' and Scientific Circles,” and help the 
young people to read and think and talk and live to worthier purpose. 

A young man may have his own little “ college ” all by himself, read this 
series of tracts one after the other, (there will soon be one hundred of them 
ready,) examine himself on them by the “Thought-Outline to Help the Mem¬ 
ory,” and thus gain knowledge, and, what is better, a love of knowledge. 

And what a young man may do in this respect, a young woman, and both 
old men aud old women, may do. 


J. H. Vincent. 


New York, Jan., 1888. 



Copyright, 1888, by Phillips & Hunt, New York. 




Ijomc College Stries, Bnmbtr Jforto-stfaen. 


THE OCEAN. 


Definition .—Ocean, or Sea, is the name applied to that 
great body which surrounds the continents, and covers, to a 
great depth, more than three fourths of the earth’s surface. 

Divisions .—It is divided into several distinct bodies by 
the formation of the land, which rises above its surface. 
These divisions are Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and 
Antarctic. The Polar oceans are divided from the Pacific 
by imaginary lines known as the Arctic and Antarctic circles. 
Portions of the ocean, nearly surrounded by land, are seas, 
gulfs, and bays. These are all united in one great system, 
and are maintained at nearly uniform composition, chiefly by 
means of strong currents, which flow continuously through 
them. Some of these ocean rivers are of enormous extent. 
What is singular and phenomenal is that these submarine 
streams flow in one direction while the water on the surface 
moves in the opposite direction. The water travels in a vast 
circle like the horses in a hippodrome. 

Saltness .—A uniform feature of the ocean is the saltness of 
the water. It holds in solution chloride of sodium, (common 
salt,) a small quantity of the sulphate of magnesium, sul¬ 
phate and carbonate of lime, iodine and bromide of magne¬ 
sium. These form about one thirtieth of the water by weight. 
In every pint of sea-water there is an ounce of salt. If the 
waters of the Atlantic Ocean were to evaporate there would 
remain a deposit of salt sufficient to cover 7,000,000 of 
square miles, to the depth of one mile. A gigantic salt-box, 
indeed! Was the water of the sea ever pure? Certainly 
not. The rivers that flow into it are not pure. They are fed 




2 


THE OCEAN. 


by springs and the rain, which washes every thing soluble, 
salts and minerals, into them. This is all carted down and 
dumped into the ocean. Vapor, moreover, is constantly 
rising from every part of the ocean in great masses, especial¬ 
ly under the tropics. The salts brought into the sea sink, 
so that by this process of evaporation it becomes salt. There 
may be also great masses of salt rock on the sea bottom, 
like that about the Dead Sea, that is constantly dissolving. 
All the causes of the saltness of the ocean are not known. It 
may have been created salt. 

The water is of nearly uniform saltness, although we come 
now and then upon places where the salt predominates. 
But this is due, beyond doubt, to local causes. Though in¬ 
land seas are, as a rule, less salt, yet the Mediterranean holds, 
in solution, more salt than the ocean itself ; while the Red 
Sea, under the intense heat and the immense evaporation 
going on, is growing constantly salter. Some of these ages 
it will form a strong pickle. 

Color. —Sea-water, inclosed in a bottle, is colorless. When 
looked at in a mass it seems a peculiar green ; when viewed 
from a distance it is blue—“ The blue, blue sea.” In the 
tropics and some parts of the Mediterranean, along the 
eastern shore, it is indigo blue. In other places it is a deep 
green; still others, a slate gray. The climate appears to have 
nothing to do with changes of color. “ Fickle as the sea ” 
is true of its color, as the changes on its surface. In some 
places the water is black ; in others, white or beautifully 
transparent. In the fiords , otf the coast of Norway, the 
water is marvelously clear and transparent. At the depth 
of twenty-five fathoms the smallest object can be seen on 
the sandy bottom. The water magnifies as the lenses of a 
microscope. According to one writer, the polar oceans are 
a very beautiful blue. While in the Bay of Naples the rays 
of the sun, falling upon the water, cause it to sparkle as 



THE OCEAN. 


3 


flakes of silver. The Black Sea derives its name from the 
storms and tempests that sweep over it, while the White 
Sea gets its name from great masses of floating ice. 

The natural color of the sea is often modified, moreover, 
by the presence of animal and vegetable life. Hence it is 
that certain parts become, at times, milk white ; while at 
other times and places the water is red as blood, as though 
the sea had ruptured an artery. This change in color is due 
to masses of sea-weed, which float upon and near the surface. 
The Red Sea often appears like a restless, tossing sea of 
blood ; while a few years ago the Atlantic was covered 
with a dark purple mantle, which extended over many square 
miles. In ancient times this phenomena was believed, by 
nervous and superstitious persons, to portend some awful 
calamity and visitation of the Divine anger and judgment. 
But science has solved the dark, portentous mystery, and 
quieted people’s nerves by showing them to result from in¬ 
nocent and harmless causes. The black mud and yellow sand 
at the bottom of the ocean, as well as the color of the sky 
overhead, has very much to do with the appearance of the 
water. In some regions, as in the neighborhood of the 
West Indies, the water is so marvelously transparent that 
ships sailing over the surface appear to hang suspended 
in the air, and plants and animals are plainly seen on the 
bottom. 

It is probable that the water has a color of its own, which 
is either blue or green. At night, and when roughened by 
wind, or the passage of a vessel, or dip of oars, the ocean 
sparkles and flashes as though on fire. In the Southern seas, 
sailors tell of balls of fire, that roll over the waves, and 
cones of fire and glittering serpents, chasing each other and 
wriggling and crawling with their fiery crests and flashing 
tails. All this illumination and glare are caused by the pres¬ 
ence of phosphorescent animals, that crowd by millions every 
drop of water and flit over the waves, lighting them up as 



4 


THE OCEAN. 


witli internal fire. Every drop of water is alive and seems 
to crawl and burn with these little flashing animalcuke. 

Extent ,—It is by no means easy to determine the exact ex¬ 
tent of the ocean. The slow and sure diminution of the 
land, caused by the friction of the waves wearing away the 
shores, changes the form of the globe. It has been clearly 
demonstrated that the ocean covers two thirds of the surface 
of the earth. Hence more than 2,000,000 of square miles are 
under water. 

Depths .—The depth of the ocean is very uncertain, and 
has been much overestimated. The difficulties in the way 
of deep-sea soundings are great, and of such a nature that 
the result cannot be depended upon when they exceed 2,000 
feet. The sounding line is continually driven aside by the 
strong currents of the sea, and assumes an oblique instead 
of a vertical direction. The ocean is too lively to be meas¬ 
ured. The line, moreover, continues to run out after it 
reaches the bottom. Various contrivances, however, have 
been invented to overcome these difficulties, and fairly reli¬ 
able measurements have been made. According to one cele¬ 
brated man the depth of the ocean is nearly 10,000 feet-. 
According to another, the depth of the Atlantic is nearly 
3,000 feet, while the Pacific is 13,000. Not far from our shore 
a naval officer threw a vertical sounding-line 33,000 feet, thus 
contradicting the calculations of Laplace, who, estimating the 
influences exerted upon our planet by the sun and moon, de¬ 
clares that the mean depth of the ocean cannot exceed 
25,000 feet. How are we poor ignorant mortals to know how 
deep the ocean is when learned doctors so disagree ? How¬ 
ever, it has been conclusively shown that the ocean does 
reach immense depths, which equal, if they do not surpass, 
the height of the loftiest mountains in India and America. 
The deepest water is in the Mediterranean Sea. 



THE OCEAN. 


5 


In some places, on the other hand, the water is extremely 
shallow. Immense banks and shoals traverse the ocean, 
while, at the mouth of many rivers, bars are formed. At 
the mouth of the Po the water is not more than 150 feet 
deep, while the Baltic Sea is nowhere more than 600 feet. 
The shallowness of the straits which separate England from 
France encourage the hope that the two countries may, ere 
long, be united by a submarine tunnel. 

Bottom .—The bottom of the ocean is composed of mount¬ 
ains and valleys, vast elevations or table-lands, of hills and 
plains. Our continents are, in fact, only the dry and varie¬ 
gated summits of these ocean mountains and table-lands. 
Shoals and banks are the more elevated plateaus of the 
ocean. Slopes of precipitous mountains, like those of St. 
Helena, are every-where found beneath the water, at the base 
of whose cliffs no bottom has yet been reached. If the con¬ 
tinents, with their mountain ranges and valleys and vast 
plains, their hills and gorges and defiles, were sunk down 
to the level of the ocean bed, and covered with water, we 
should have an exact representation of the present ocean bot¬ 
tom. The present continents were once the bottom of the 
sea, and were lifted out of their watery graves on the shoul¬ 
ders of the volcano. This the marine shells on the tops of 
the highest mountains conclusively proves. If the bottom 
of the present oceans were some morning lifted above the 
water by the same Titanic volcanic upheaval, we should have 
other continents similar to our present ones. If the surface 
of the globe, instead of being uneven, were smooth as an 
ivory ball, the sea would cover it to the depth of 650 feet. 

Distribution .—The southern hemisphere is much more 
abundantly supplied with water than the northern. The 
great globe is divided into two parts—the sea-world and 
the dry land. The bulk of the land-world lies in the 



6 


THE OCEAN. 


north-eastern section of the earth, while the ocean reigns and 
revels in the south-western. 

Temperature. —The ocean consists of three immense basins. 
The first two are at the poles ; the third, under the equator. 
The temperature of the water is tolerably high at the surface, 
but at the depth of 1,200 fathoms it sinks to forty degrees. 
As you move away from the equator, in either direction, the 
cold water comes nearer the surface. On reaching the lati¬ 
tude of forty-five degrees it rises within 600 fathoms. Thus 
the same temperature is found at one half the depth. At 
this distance there appears to be a zone all around the earth 
where the water is the same temperature at all depths ; sin¬ 
gular fact. As you approach the poles, however, from this 
zone of uniform heat, the temperature rapidly sinks until 
the surface of the water is frozen, and magnificent icebergs 
float in all directions. .The light falling and playing upon 
their minarets and ice-spires and needles, give them a won¬ 
derfully gorgeous and brilliant appearance, a frozen beauty, 
and a cold and stately grandeur. 

Currents. —Immense currents march in different directions 
through the sea. Magnificent oceanic rivers; they bear the 
cold water of the poles toward the tropics to cool and invig¬ 
orate them, while they bear into the frigid regions the heated 
water of the equator. They perform the same office for the 
sea that aerial currents do for the atmosphere. 

These currents are due to two causes—heat and the revo¬ 
lution of the earth on its axis. Near the equator, as we 
have already seen, the water is quite hot, while, at a certain 
depth, it maintains its icy coolness. The cold water from 
the two poles, heavier than the heated water of the tropics, 
is continually rushing forward toward the equator, growing 
warmer as it approaches it. Thus the cooler water flows be¬ 
low, while the warmer and lighter moves along the surface 



THE OCEAN. 


7 


above. The latter, driven toward the poles, meets the polar 
stream coming in the opposite direction at the point where 
the water is of uniform temperature at all depths, thus form¬ 
ing currents above and below, running in opposite directions, 
and, where the land renders this impossible, side by side. 

The rotary motion of the earth, moreover, differs at the 
equator and the poles, moving with only half the velocity at 
the latter, therefore the polar currents cannot move in a 
straight line toward the center, but are swept aside, in a 
curve, from east to west. The north polar current follows the 
coast of North America, while the southern current moves 
along the shores of Chili. In the tropics, both currents are 
affected by the trade-winds, and thus form an equatorial cur¬ 
rent nearly 250 miles in width, encircling the whole globe in 
one majestic river. 

These currents are a boon and benediction to navigation, 
wafting the mariner, on strong and steady wings and a pow¬ 
erful stream, on his way as far in a few days, as in months 
before their presence and direction were well understood. 

The grand purpose of these currents seems to be to equal¬ 
ize the temperature of the globe. The Atlantic currents 
temper the heat of the South American coast, while the Gulf 
Stream brings mild winters to Ireland, England, and Norway, 
and keeps back the icebergs that else would drift down upon 
their shores. Hence, in the Old World, trees grow and fields 
are green, flowers bloom and fruit ripens, ten degrees farther 
north than with us ; and agriculture is carried on and cities 
flourish and delightful homes abound at a latitude which, in 
our country, is uninhabitable and covered with perpetual 
snow and ice. A large portion of the Old World depends 
entirely upon the beneficent Gulf Stream for its existence 
and prosperity. 

Currents of the ocean, like currents of air, create gyra¬ 
tions, which, in some parts of the sea, have the appearance 
of whirlpools or maelstroms. Some of them run up hill; 



8 


THE OCEAN. 


others, on a level. The ocean, as well as the air, has its sys¬ 
tem of circulation—its veins and arteries—which obey the 
laws of gravity. The plants and people of the sea, its flora 
and fauna, are all creatures of climate, and are as dependent 
upon temperature as those of the land. Were it not so we 
should find the fish of various sorts, the corals and marine 
insects, equally distributed and mixed and jumbled together. 
But they each have their habitats—places where they dwell, 
and are at home. Tropical fish and sea flowers are as rarely 
found in northern seas as Esquimaux and ice-huts in Cuba or 
Panama. It is the circulation of marine currents that equal¬ 
ize and preserve the temperature of the ocean, and secure to 
it all the diversity of climate we have on the continents. 

Gulf Stream .—This remarkable stream deserves special 
mention. It is the most powerful and best known of all the 
marine currents. It extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the 
Arctic Ocean. Its current is more rapid than the Mississippi 
or the Amazon, while its volume is a thousand times greater. 
Its water, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Carolina coast, is 
indigo blue, and is so distinctly marked that the joining line 
with the water of the ocean can be clearly seen with the 
naked eye. One half of a ship is sometimes seen floating in 
the Gulf Stream, while the other is in the water outside, in 
a strait betwixt two. The water is much salter than the 
Ocean through which it flows, which accounts for its deep 
blue color. 

This wonderful stream conveys away the heat of the Gulf 
of Mexico and disperses it over the Atlantic. The highest 
temperature of the Gulf Stream is 86 degrees, nine degrees 
above the ocean temperature in the same latitude. In pass¬ 
ing through ten degrees of north latitude it loses only two 
degrees of heat, and, after running 3,000 miles northward, it 
still retains, even in winter, the genial warmth of summer. 
With this temperature it crosses the Atlantic at the 45th 



THE OCEAN. 


9 


parallel of north latitude, and then overflows its banks and 
spreads out over a thousand leagues of surrounding water, 
softening and tempering the climate of Europe. Simple cal¬ 
culation will show that the amount of heat discharged over 
the Atlantic, from the water of this magnificent stream, in a 
winter day, would raise the temperature of France and En¬ 
gland from the freezing point to summer heat. “Every 
west wind that blows wafts this stream on its way to Europe, 
and bears along with it a great body of heat to temper the 
northern winds of winter.” Were it not for this vast marine 
river, the countries contiguous to the Mexican Gulf would 
be the hottest, if not the most unhealthy, part of the globe. 
As the water becomes heated it is carried off by the Gulf 
Stream, and is replaced by the colder water of the Caribbean 
Sea. It is estimated that the amount of heat daily borne 
away from these regions and distributed over the Atlantic 
Ocean is sufficient to raise “ mountains of iron from zero to 
the point of fusion, and keep in constant flow a molten stream 
of metal, greater in volume than the water daily discharged 
from the Mississippi. Whales first pointed out the Gulf 
Stream by avoiding its warm water. 

This same stream, moreover, is the great balance-wheel, a 
part of the intricate and delicate machinery by which air 
and water are adapted to each other, and by which the earth 
itself is fitted for the use of its inhabitants. According to 
sailors, the Gulf Stream is the great “ weather-breeder ” of 
the north Atlantic, the prolific mother of storms and gales. 
The most furious winds sweep along with it, while the fogs 
of Newfoundland are doubtless due to the warm water flow¬ 
ing into the cold water of that region. Investigation shows 
that the terrible storms that so often rage in that part of 
the Atlantic are caused by the differences between the tem¬ 
perature of the Gulf Stream and the surrounding air and 
water. The habitual dampness of the British Islands, the 
dense London fogs, as well as the universal dampness along 



10 


THE OCEAN. 


the coast of the United States, when the wind is east, is due, 
also, to the Gulf Stream. Notwithstanding all this, the 
presence of the Gulf Stream, with its summer heat, off our 
bleak coast, is a vast help to navigation. How many, many 
ships take refuge in its warm water during the terrible cold 
and storms of our winter! Their number can only be 
guessed, but are, no doubt, immense. Formerly ships knew 
no place of refuge nearer than the West Indies, where, when 
blown off their course, they sought shelter, and waited for 
the pleasant weather of spring before leaving port again. 
It serves, also, as an admirable landmark to sailors off our 
coast in all weathers, showing them what course to steer, 
and what waters to avoid. 

The Pacific Gulf Stream is hardly less important, although 
much less known. It does for the Pacific what our better- 
understood stream does for the Atlantic. It is composed of 
several different currents. Among the best known is the 
famous Humboldt Current of Peru, which is felt as far as 
the equator, rendering the rainless climate of Peru de¬ 
lightful. 

Uses of the Ocean .—The ocean is popularly called “ a 
w r aste of waters.” There is no greater mistake and misno¬ 
mer. The sea is as essential to the life and beauty of the 
world as the blood that flows in our veins is essential to 
human life and beauty. It is a vast, exhaustless fountain of 
life and health and beauty. Without its contributions every 
form of life would perish, and the “ world become one vast 
Sahara of frost and fire, and the solid globe itself, scarred 
and blasted on every side, would swing in the heavens as 
silent and as at the first morning of creation.” The water 
is as indispensable as the air. All plants, from the smallest 
to the greatest ; all animals, from the animalcule to the 
leviathan, from the mastodon to the microscopic creatures 
that swarm by millions in a dew-drop, all drink out of the 




THE OCEAN. 


11 


sea. “ All the waters that are in the rivers, lakes, and fount¬ 
ains, the dew, the rain, the snow, the vapor, come alike from 
the ocean.” The ocean fills the rivers, not the rivers the 
ocean. The womb of all the water is the sea. The rivers 
rise in the sea, not in the mountains, as geographers declare. 
When they return to the ocean they are simply wayward 
children going home to their generous mother. The amount 
of water taken up out of the ocean and sent down in refresh¬ 
ing dew and rain would make a river twenty-five thousand 
miles long, reaching round the globe, more than fifty times 
as large as the Mississippi or the Amazon. It would make 
another grand Gulf Stream sweeping and circling about the 
entire planet. “How many rivers are there in the sky? 
Just as many as there are on the earth. If they were not 
first in the sky how could they be on the earth ? If it is the 
sky that keeps them full, then the sky must always have 
enough to keep them full; that is, it must be pouring down 
into them as much as they themselves are pouring down into 
the sea.” It is estimated that enough water falls every year 
to convert the whole globe into an ocean five feet in depth. 
All this water, vast as it is, comes first out of the sea, and 
then returns to it. If it were not for this amount sent off 
by evaporation, and the amount sent out and the amount 
received did not balance, we should all very soon be under 
water, and the waves of old ocean would be tramping over 
all the land. 

“ We are surrounded every moment by the presence and 
bounty of the sea. It is the sea that looks out upon us from 
■every violet in our garden bed ; from every spire of grass 
that drops upon our passing feet the beaded dew of the 
morning; from the rustling ranks of the growing corn ; from 
the bending grain that fills the arms of the reaper ; from the 
juicy globes of gold and crimson that burn among the green 
orchard foliage ; from the forehead of his cattle, and the 
faces of his children ; from the well at his door, and the 



12 


THE OCEAN,\ 


brook that murmurs at its side ; from the elm and spread¬ 
ing maple, that weave their protecting branches beneath the 
sun, and swing their breezy shadows over his habitation. It 
is the sea that feeds him. It is the sea that clothes him. It 
cools him in summer, and warms him with the blazing fires 
of winter.” It is, moreover, the great vehicle for the distri¬ 
bution and equalization of the heat of the globe, cooling 
the torrid and warming the temperate and frigid zones. 

The Winds of the Sea .—These perform a vital function in 
the health and vigor of men and animals. There are both 
land and sea breezes. When the air over the land becomes 
heated it rises up, creating a vacuum. The cool, fresh, vital¬ 
ized, salted air of the ocean flows in to cool, invigorate, and 
cleanse the atmosphere. Impurities of all sorts rise from 
city and town, from bog and swamp, from decaying animals 
and vegetables, upon the face of the whole earth. The air 
would become intolerable ; pestilence would stalk abroad 
at noon-day ; the odor of a pest-house would pervade our 
homes and fill our nostrils, but for these grateful, health- 
charged sea breezes. 

“The sea is set to purify the atmosphere. The winds, 
whose wings are heavy, and whose breath is sick with the 
malaria of the lands over which they are blown, are sent 
out to range over these mighty pastures of the deep ; to 
plunge and play with its rolling billows, and dip their pin¬ 
ions over and over in its healing waters. There they rest, 
when they are weary, cradled into sleep on that vast, swing¬ 
ing couch of the ocean. There they rouse themselves when 
they are refreshed, and lifting its waves upon their shoulders, 
they dash them into spray with their hands, and hurl them 
backward and forward,through a thousand leagues of sky,until 
their whole substance, being drenched and bathed and washed 
and winnowed and sifted, through and through, by this glo¬ 
rious baptism, they fill their mighty lungs once more with 



THE OCEAN. 


13 


the sweet breath of ocean, and striking their wings once 
more for the shore, breathing health and vigor along all the 
fainting hosts that wait for them in the mountain and forest, 
valley and plain, till the whole drooping continent lifts up its 
rejoicing face, and mingles its laughter with the sea, that has 
waked it from its fevered sleep, and poured such tides of 
returning life through all its shriveled arteries.” By its 
chemical properties and mechanical forces, the sea is the 
great sanitary commission of the nations. It fills the veins 
of the earth with pure water, and “ feeds its nostrils with the 
breath of life;” “keeps its bosom pure and sparkling as the 
sapphire sky, thrills its form with eternal youth, and fires it 
with the flush of eternal beauty.” 

The Broadway of the Sea .—The sea is the great thorough¬ 
fare which brings the ends of the earth together, and binds 
them in a most effectual brotherhood. The great nations of 
the civilized world have been located on the sea, as England, 
Italy, Greece, and our own nation. It develops both individ¬ 
uality and enterprise. It rouses courage and stimulates ad¬ 
venture. It makes a bold, resolute people, who begin by 
creeping, at first, along the shore, and end by turning the 
prow seaward and striking boldly across the deep. In this way 
the ends of the earth are brought together. Were the globe 
solid land we never would have known who lived on the other 
side of it. Without ships there never would have been rail¬ 
ways, and only a primitive and puny population. How much 
more rapidly a nation develops in all material resources that 
lies on the sea-board, and is penetrated by gulfs and bays, 
those arms and hands of the sea, reaching inland to gather up 
the materials of commerce, the products and manufactures of 
the interior, or is pierced by great rivers that wash the roots 
of the mountains, and form “a silver pavement” for thousands 
of miles, over which men may pass to settle the inmost 
heart of the country, and bring its products and treasures 



14 


THE OCEAN. 


to the shore. Our own country is a striking instance of this: 
sort. With “ our necklace of lakes thrown around our north¬ 
ern borders,” and that stupendous river coming up from the 
gulf to meet them, our whole land is opened up. 

The whole gigantic commerce of the world, whose sails 
whiten every sea, and whose prows ate thrust up every bay 
and inlet and navigable river ; whose huge steamers, floating 
palaces, nay, almost cities, that cross and recross every ocean, 
and steam along every coast; that brings all the treasures and 
luxuries of the earth and lays them down at our feet, and 
piles them in our warehouses, spreads them on our tables, 
and brings us the plants and birds, the plumage and flowers 
of all lands, the fruits and gems of every clime, uses the 
water as its highway, and is the first-born child of the sea. 
Agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, the master trinity 
of human industries, alike depend upon the sea, and live and 
move and have their being from it. 

Animals and Plants .—The sea seems one vast grave, a 
receptacle of the dead waste and refuse of the earth. But 
it is far from being a receptacle of the dead. It is crowded 
with the intensest and busiest life. The inhabitants of the 
sea outnumber those of the land many thousand-fold. There 
are more than twenty-five thousand distinct species of living 
beings that dwell in the sea. There are more than eight 
thousand species of fish, and some of these swarm in such 
countless millions, that they “ move in columns that are sev¬ 
eral leagues in width, and many fathoms thick ; and this 
vast stream of life continues to move past the same point 
for whole months together. Incredible numbers are taken 
from the sea: in Norway, four hundred millions of a single 
species in a single season ; in Sweden, seven hundred mill¬ 
ions; and by other nations, numbers without number.” Those 
that are taken are as nothing to those that remain. This is 
only one species out of eight thousand. The fish of the sea. 



THE OCEAN. 


15 


innumerable as they are, bear no sort of proportion, are but 
a drop in the ocean, compared with the multitudinous forms 
of microscopic and animalcular life with which the ocean is 
filled. Some of these creatures are so small that it would 
take forty thousand of them to measure one inch in length. 
They are so densely crowded together that a drop of water 
contains five hundred millions, half as many as there are 
inhabitants of the whole globe. Every drop of the sea 
is all astir with intense and innumerable hosts, a whole 
continent of busy, happy beings, that draw their existence 
from God, and wait on him for food. No two of these 
minute creatures are alike. They are marked and formed 
distinctly. Their shells are fluted, dotted, punctured, and 
variously and gorgeously colored. 

Many of these species of fish are good for food. The 
inhabitants of the polar region live from the sea. The sav¬ 
age tribes of the islands of the Pacific, and along some of 
the shores of the continents, draw upon the same source 
of supplies. All civilized lands levy immense contributions 
on the life of the sea. The fishing marine is large and active, 
and uncounted millions are taken from the water and dis¬ 
tributed by commerce, in various forms, as food and oil and 
fertilizers, over the civilized world. 

The flora of the sea is as remarkable as the fauna. The 
plants and flowers, if less numerous than the fish, are no less 
wonderful. The sea bottom in many places is a royal gar¬ 
den, the king’s vale. The variety, color, beauty of the 
flowers and plants are a source of exhaustless study and won¬ 
der to those who have given attention to them. Almost 
every storm that stirs up the sea from the bottom strews 
the shore with masses of various and exquisite plants. Whole 
windrows of sea-weed and mosses are rolled upon the beach 
by the marching and counter-marching of the waves, which 
catch these wrecks of marine gardens in their teeth and spit 
them upon the shore. One of the most exquisite ornaments 



16 


THE OCEAN. 


ever devised by man, or worn by woman, is a cluster of deep- 
sea mosses, ethereal as a dream, clear as a beam of light, of 
all the rare and rich marine colors, clasped in a plain band 
of gold, and worn at the neck, or in the hair. 

God .—“The sea is his, and he made it.” He holds exclu¬ 
sive possession of it. Its vastness and loneliness proclaim 
the name and majesty of Jehovah. Man’s empire stops at 
the sea. Here his proud steps are stayed. Man has “ no in¬ 
heritance in it.” If he goes upon it, it is as a pilgrim and a 
stranger. If he crosses it, he leaves no foot-prints behind 
him. He leaves no trace of his presence or power ; he builds 
no roads, rears no houses, pitches no tents, erects no monu¬ 
ments, fixes no boundaries. The spot of no naval battle or 
great calamity is marked by a monument or an arch. It 
scorns and laughs at man’s puny power. “All the strength 
of all his generations is to it as a feather before the whirl¬ 
wind, and all the noise of his commerce and all the thunder of 
his navies it can hush in a moment within the silence of its 
impenetrable abysses.” What a vast multitude of things 
have gone down into its dark, tumultuous waters, and not a 
trace “ or a bubble marks the place ” where they sunk. I 
suppose it is true, that if all the people and cities and monu¬ 
ments, the marine of the ages, all the accumulations of the 
generations of men, were cast into the sea, the waters would 
roll over them in derision, “ a thousand fathoms above their 
topmost stone.” Though all the steamers that ply between 
the Old World and the New were to pass over the same track 
for a thousand years, they would not leave a trace behind to 
tell where they went. The sea is to-day as if man were 
never upon it. It is God’s habitation, the liquid floor of his 
great temple, where none but the Majesty on high dwells. 
Its great waves and billows voice his name and praise. 
When going over it we seem to be borne as into the pres¬ 
ence of the Unseen. 



NOTES. 

“ Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks; 

A thousand men that fishes gnawed upon; 

Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, 
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, 

All scattered in the bottom of the sea.” 

—Shakespeare, 

“ Virtue could see to do what virtue would 
By her own radiant light, though sun and moon 
Were in the flat sea sunk.” —Milton. 

“That which is to all human minds the best emblem of unwearied, 
unconquerable power, the wild, various, fantastic, tameless unity 
of the sea; what shall we compare to this mighty, this universal 
element for glory and for beauty ? or how shall we follow its eternal 
changefulness of feeling ? It is like trying to paint a soul, ”— Buskin, 

“Hence, in a season of calm weather, 

Though inland far we be, 

Our souls have sight of that immortal sea 
Which brought us hither, 

Can in a moment travel thither, 

And see the children sport upon the shore, 

And hear its mighty waters rolling evermore, 

—Wordsworth, 


THE OCEAN. 

[TnOtTGHT-OTTTLINE TO HELP THE MEMORT.] 

1. Extent? Composition? Shades of color? Soundings? 

2. Bed of ocean? Ocean changes? Unequal temperature? Currents, Gulf 

Stream—Atlantic, Pacific ? 

3. Use—Fountain—Highway? 

4. Currents of air caused by ? 

5. Inhabitants of? Fish, animalcul®? 

6. Mystery ? Master ? 



TRACTS. 


Home College Series. 

Price, each, 5 cents. Per 100, for cash, $3 50. 

The “ Home College Series” will contain short papers on a wide range of subjects— 
biographical, historical, scientific, literary, domestic, political, and religious. Indeed, the 
religious tone will characterize all of them. They are written for every body—for all 
whose leisure is limited, but who desire to use the minutes for the enrichment of life. 

NOW READY. 

No. 


1. Thomas Carlyle. By Daniel Wise, 

D.D. 

2. William Wordsworth. By Daniel 

Wise, D.D. 

3. Egypt. By J. I. Boswell. 

4. Henry Wordsworth Longfellow. 

By Daniel Wise, D.D. 

5. Rome. By J.l. Boswell. 

6. England. By J. I. Boswell. 

7. The Sun. By C. M. Westlake, M.S. 

8. Washington Irving. By Daniel Wise, 

D.D. 

9. Political Economy. By G. M. Steele, 

D.D. 

10. Art in Egypt. By Edward A. Rand. 

11. Greece. By J. I. Boswell. 

12. Christ as a Teacher. By Bishop E. 

Thomson. 

13. George Herbert. By Daniel Wise, 

D.D. 

14. Daniel the Uncompromising Young 

Man. By C. H. Payne, D.D. 

15. The Moon. By C. M. Westlake, M.S. 

16. The Rain. By Miss Carrie E. Den- 

nen. 

17. Joseph Addison. By Daniel Wise, 

D.D. 

18. Edmund Spenser. By Daniel Wise, 

D.D. 

19. China and Japan. By J. I. Boswell. 

20. The Planets. By C. M. Westlake, 

M.S. 

21. William Hickling Prescott. By 

Daniel Wise, D.D. 

22. Wise Sayings of the Common 

Folk. 

23. William Shakespeare. By Daniel 

Wise, D.D. 

24. Geometry. 

25. The Stars. By C. M. Westlake. M.S. 

26. John Milton. By Daniel Wise, D.D. 

27. Penmanship. 

28. Housekeeper’s Guide. 

29. Themistocles and Pericles. (From 

Plutarch.) 

30. Alexander. (From Plutarch.) 

31. Coriolanus and Maximus. (From 

Plutarch.) 

32. Demosthenes and Alcibiades. (From 

Plutarch.) 

33. The Gracchi. {From Plutarch.) 

34. Caesar and Cicero. (From Plutarch.) 

35. Palestine. By J. I. Boswell. 

36. Readings from William Words¬ 

worth. 

37. The Watch and the Clock. By Al¬ 

fred Taylor. 

38. A Set of Tools. By Alfred Taylor. 


No. 

39. Diamonds and other Precious 

Stones. By Alfred Taylor. 

40. Memory Practice. 

41. Gold and Silver. By Alfred Taylor. 

42. Meteors. By C. M. Westlake, M.S. 

43. Aerolites. By C. M. Westlake, M.S. 

44. France. By J. I. Boswell. 

45. Euphrates Valley. By J. I. Boswell. 

46. United States. By J. I. Boswell. 

47. The Ocean. By Miss Carrie R. Den- 

nen. 

48. Two Weeks in the Yosemite and 

Vicinity. By J. M. Buckley, D.D. 

49. Keep Good Company. By Samuel 

Smiles. 

50. Ten Days in Switzerland. By H. B. 

Ridgaway, D.D. 

51. Art in the Far East. By E. A. Rand. 

52. Readings from Cowper. 

53. Plant Life. By Mrs. V. C. Phoebus. 

54. Words. By Mrs. V. C. Phoebus. 

55. Readings from Oliver Goldsmith. 

56. Art in Greece. Part 1 . 

57. Art in Italy. Part I. 

58. Art in Germany. 

59. Art in France. 

6a Art in England. 

61. Art in America. 

62. Readings from Tennyson. 

63. Readings from Milton. Part I. 

64. Thomas Chalmers. By Daniel Wise, 

D.D. 

65. Rufus Choate. 

66 . The Temperance Movement versus 

The Liquor System. 

67. Germany. By J. I. Boswell. 

68. Readings from Milton. Part II. 

69. Reading and Readers. By H. C. 

Farrar, A.B. 

70. The Cary Sisters. By Miss Jennie M. 

Bingham. 

71. A Few Facts about Chemistry. By 

Mrs. V. C. Phoebus. 

72. A Few Facts about Geology. By 

Mrs. V. C. Phoebus. 

73. A Few Facts about Zoology. By 

Mrs. V. C Phoebus. 

74. Circle (The) of Sciences. 

75. Daniel Webster. By Dr. C. Adams. 

76. The World of Science. 

77. Comets. By C. M. Westlake, M.S. 

78. Art in Greece. Part II. 

79. Art in Italy. Part II. 

80. Art in Land of Saracens. 

81. Art in Northern Europe. Part I. 

82. Art in Northern Europe, Part II. 

83. Art in Western Asia. By E. C. 

Rand. 


Published by Phillips & Hunt, New York 5 Walden & Stowe, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

















































































































































































